Hey everyone! Hope 2014 has been rad for all of you so far. Now that we’re well into the new year, our staff has their top 10-ish album lists for your reading pleasure.
Jack Baker:
****** Instead of a list, I offer an imaginary awards ceremony. My brain works better this way. Here is my favorite music of 2013!
****** BEST HIPSTER RAP: Action Bronson/ Danny Brown “Blue Chips 2” from Bronson and “Old” from Brown are both excellent statements in terms of their production and lyrical content. On BC2, Action Bronson brings his baroque and often grotesque brag-raps about food, womyn, and his imaginary sports careers to a new level. With “Old,” Danny tells the story of his rise to fame in an infectious line of tracks, reminding us that he is indeed from the streets, and although he is a maturing father, still enjoys copious amounts sex and MDMA. For further listening, refer to “Blue Chips” by Bronson and “Hot Soup” by Danny Brown.
****** BEST DANCE ALBUM: DJ Rashad – Double Cup How I missed this at the fall concert, I do not know. Amazing juke/footwork stuff from DJ Rashad. I’m totally new to the Chicago scene, but he has me hooked. Definitely gonna dig more into this type of stuff, as dance music is being taken over again by the old-school sound. Listen to “Drank, Kush, Barz” off this album for a taste.
****** BEST NEW OLD MUSIC THAT I JUST HEARD: The Rattles – The Witch 1970s dirty garage rock straight outta’ Detroit. Listen to “The Witch” off this album.
****** BEST BAND OF ALL TIME: Death Grips Download “Government Plates” now. http://thirdworlds.net/files/govt-plates.zip
****** BEST GIRLY SYNTH-POP: Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe This album makes you think about high school, but in a good way. Or maybe it reminds me of the feeling of holding hands in 8th grade. Listen to “Gun.”
****** BEST L.A. UNDERDOG RAPPER DEBUT: Jonwayne – Rap Album One Wayniac affirms his lyrical bravado and very unique style on his first full length with Stones Throw Records. The beats are good, and the raps demand to be re-listened to over and over again. Looking forward to more from this guy for sure. Check “The Come Up Pt. 1,” and also Cassette 3: Marion Morrison Mixtape too for extra listening.
******BEST ALBUM ABOUT DRINKING PEE: Yellow River Boys – Urinal St. Station I’m speechless.
****** Also, special thanks to Drake, Kimye, Beyoncé, and Kendrick. ****** Peace Love Music, Jack
Rounak Maiti:
2) Pain Is Beauty- Chelsea Wolfe
3) Trouble Will Find Me- The National
4) Overgrown- James Blake
5) Push The Sky Away- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
6) Nothing Was The Same- Drake
7) Black Radio 2- Robert Glasper Experiment
8) Negativity- Deer Tick
9) Shaking the Habitual- The Knife
10) Night Time, My Time- Sky Ferreira
- Portugal. The Man: Evil Friends
- Born Ruffians: Birthmark
- Haim: Days Are Gone
- The Blow: The Blow
- Phoenix: Bankrupt
- The Civil Wars: The Civil Wars
- Fitz and the Tantrums: More than Just a Dream
- Arctic Monkeys: AM
- Arcade Fire: Reflektor
- Django Django: Django Django (2012)
Allan Van Vliet:
15 ALBUMS FOR 2013
- Joanna Gruesome – Weird Sister
An exciting collection of cohesive, catchy, noisy pop-punk songs from Cardiff’s greatest rabble-rousing upstarts.
- Wolf Eyes – No Answer: Lower Floors
Detroit noise royalty enact a virtue often overlooked in extreme genres of music (and on some of their previous records); patience. The result is an unsettling negotiation between the precision of minimal noise and the landscape of chaos their music is birthed from. 10/10 VERY SCARY.
P.S. OCCIDENTAL STUDENTS/EAGLE ROCK COMMUNITY: Stop fucking up and go see Wolf Eyes play live at the Church on York on 1/31.
- Melt-Banana – Fetch
Japanese noise rockers release one of the best efforts of a career spanning nearly 20 years. The energy on this record is explosive and contagious.
- Youth Code – S/T
These hardcore kids traded in their Unbroken 7’’s for a copy of Throbbing Gristle’s 2nd Annual Report. Compelling, abrasive EBM (Electronic Body Music).
- Hoax – S/T
A band called Hoax puts out the most honest record of 2013. Blistering, simple hardcore straight outta Western Massachusetts that refuses to preoccupy itself with trend or muscle-flexing.
- Perfect Pussy – I Have Lost All Desire for Feeling
Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves has something to say and wastes no time saying it. This Syracuse outfit’s noisy urgency seems to perfectly sum up everything great about punk in 2013.
- Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze
Kurt Vile’s newest album feels like the Jeff Lebowski equivalent of “Fanfare for the Common Man”; finding solace in the smallest of gratitudes, Vile’s stoney, bittersweet* (*I hate this word) anthems feel triumphant by virtue of not collapsing underneath the weight of the universe.
- Power Trip – Manifest Decimation
Classic thrash from Dallas’s heaviest hit-makers. This is what the bad fifth graders from Hey Arnold! must have been listening to.
- Nails – Abandon All Life
As if 2010’s Unsilent Death couldn’t be any more menacing, Todd Jones & Co. release an even more punishing cross-breed of d-beat, hardcore, grind, and whatever else your parents don’t want you listening to. Thanks to the headphone-worthy production of Converge’s Kurt Ballou, you will be left scatterbrained for twice as long than it took to listen to the LP (17 minutes from Side A to Side B).
- Iceage – You’re Nothing
Much of Iceage’s initial press attention for New Brigade was dominated by the novelty of a bunch of baby-faced Danes bringing violence along with a unique breed of post-punk to their early shows.
- My Bloody Valentine – m b v
Despite an 11-year absence from new material, MBV return triumphant as ever with a collection of songs that are guaranteed to induce introspection.
- Death Grips – Government Plates
Just when we thought 2012 was the year of Death Grips (The Money Store, No Love Deep Web and respective controversy, etc.), Zach, Andy, and Stephan drop the album of their career (so far).
- Tim Hecker – Virgins
Tim Hecker doesn’t like the term ‘ambient,’ and I understand his sentiment. Such a word seems to belittle how monumental Virgins feels. With such an incredible talent for incorporating so many sonic layers, the one begins to wonder which sounds are actually the work of Hecker and which are being simultaneously constructed by the listener. Staggeringly beautiful.
- Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
Making the label jump from Mexican Summer to legendary Sheffield-based Warp, Daniel Lopatin’s sonic exploration is vast but never tedious or tiresome. The beauty of Lopatin’s newest release is in its ability to escape the traditional binaries of recorded music; blurring the line between sample and source material, R Plus Seven never feels indebted to the past or focused on the future. The brilliance of Lopatin’s work relies on its meditative sense of presence.
- Deafheaven – Sunbather
What else can be said that hasn’t about Sunbather? If you are too caught up in the dialogue surrounding whether or not this is black metal, you’re missing the point, and drastically missing out. Deafheaven delivered one of the most cohesive, visionary albums I’ve ever heard, with an ear for dynamic so strong that you can feel your blood flow faster even after a handful of listens (or cry uncontrollably).
Here’s to crying in 2014!
Griffin Wynne:
“Acid Rap” by Chance the Rapper
“Overgrown” by James Blake
“Doris” by Earl Sweatshirt
“Old” by Danny Brown
“Girl Talk” by Kate Nash
“Mala” Devendra Banhart
“Fade” by Yo La Tengo
“Slow Focus” by Fuck Buttons
“Shelter” by Ramshackle Glory & Ghost Mice
“The Lone Bellow” by The Lone Bellow